March 21, 2005

• Random Thoughts

  Random Thoughts

   

  I have so many random thoughts scurrying around in my brain this morning I don’t know where to begin, or what to write about.  Here is a partial list of some of the things that are on my mind:

   

  The Passion of the Christ:  I saw this movie for the first time last night.  I chose not to see it last year when it was first released in theaters, partly because it was over-hyped, in my opinion.  Not that I didn’t or don’t believe that it was and is an important movie.  It is, I can say that unequivocally today after having seen it.  It is moving beyond words.  But I did not want to see it as part of a religious campaign to make it a commercial success to prove its worthiness.  Last night it was shown at our church.  The “crowd” (if you can all it that) that showed up to see it was small, perhaps only 25 people.  The screen was larger than a big-screen home theater TV set, but not the gigantic, larger-than-life screen found in today’s multi-plexes.  It gave me a sense of intimacy that a theater could not have given.  The people were all friends.  I sat next to my good friend Jayne and heard her weeping.  I know her tears were genuine.  I myself did not weep, except during the scene where Mary rushes to Jesus, her beloved son, who has stumbled on his agonizing walk to the site of his crucifixion.  As she makes her way towards him, a flashback to a scene from his childhood is shown; Mary picks up Jesus, only a toddler, and rocks him close to her body, calming his cries, reassuring him with her presence.  Today she cannot reassure him.  It is now he who reassures her with his words.  “You see mother, I make all things new.”  I felt the tears well up in my eyes, and two escaped to course down my face, one down each cheek.  A mother’s pain–this I can identify with.

   

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  Terry Schaivo:  the debate over her right to live vs. the very valid question of whether it would be her wish to live in an irreversible vegetative state is everywhere in the news, it seems.  As I flipped through the 60+ channels I have with my cable subscription this morning I saw it on no less than 8 different stations.  It really bothers me that this has become a national debate, that congress and the President are involved in what, I think, should be a very private decision.  Another Xangan, Leonidas, has written eloquently about this subject, if you care to read any more about it.  Personally, I want the woman and her family to be left in peace, but I know that will never happen.  It’s her family and their inability to come to any peaceful conclusion about what is right for her that started this uproar in the first place.

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  The Trebby Awards!!!  I wrote in a previous entry about the fact that the boy’s choir Grant and Mark sing with has been nominated for a Trebby award, an award in the world of treble choirs that is as significant (to them) as a Grammy or a Dove award would be in the larger world of music recordings.  I found out this morning that the Land of Lakes Choirboys WON in their category!!!   This is very BIG and EXCITING news!!!!  Mark is planning a celebration party tonight with some of our neighbors.  He wants me to make homemade ice cream, and have everyone over for ice cream sundaes.  This is great, I hope the choir will get some well-deserved recognition for this outstanding accomplishment.  Here is another interesting review of the choir from a non-biased source…someone who loves boys choirs but has no personal connection to the Land of Lakes Choirboys.

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  Spring Break:  Today is the first day of spring break for my 4 boys who still live at home and attend our public schools.  It is nice not to have to get up so early and get them all out the door on time.  I always enjoy the more relaxed pace we set for ourselves whenever school is not in session.  We don’t have any special plans for the week, but I’m sure we will stay busy.  We always manage to do that!

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  The Memory of Running:  This is the book I just started reading yesterday.  I got to chapter 9 (page 48) before I fell asleep reading last night.  So far it’s okay.  It’s written in first person, which is not my favorite voice, and the narrator/main character (Smithy) is not an especially likeable character, yet.  He is an overweight, chain-smoking, beer drinking, under-achieving, apathetic, middle-aged man who has just lost both of his parents in a car accident.  He has a sister who has long since disappeared from his life, the victim of what I can only surmise at this point in the book to be schizophrenia.  From reading the book jacket, I know that before I get too much further into the plot, she is going to turn up dead too.  So Smithy is going to begin an odyssey of self-discovery.  It is this journey, and the transformation of his life, that I am anticipating, and what I believe will eventually make this a very readable and worthwhile story.

   

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  The price of gas:    I paid $1.99/gal on Saturday to fill my gas tank.  That’s somewhat of a “bargain” from the reports I have been seeing.  I expect the price to be higher when I head into town today.  How much is gas in YOUR neighborhood?  Why does the price at the pump go up the second the oil producers of the world raise their price for a barrel of crude?  Doesn’t it take awhile for that pricier stuff to get processed and into our cars and furnaces?  On the other hand, I do NOT agree with the decision of our government to open the Alaskan wilderness for oil exploration.  I see this as a very short-sighted and temporary solution with enormous long-term environmental implications.  We need to figure out ways to reduce our oil consumption, not just tear up our earth in a desperate attempt to satisfy our insatiable consumption of a non-renewable resource.  I heard one senator stand up and say that if we can get at the oil in Alaska we could have enough oil to provide this country with it’s own oil resources for TWENTY-FIVE years….twenty-five years????  C’mon…and what are we supposed to do after that?  Twenty-five years is a less than a drop in the bucket as history is measured.  So we irreversibly damage our earth, strip it for all it’s worth, and then what….I shudder for my children and grandchildren.  I shudder for myself.  I plan to still be around in 25 years, but I wonder what kind of a life I will be living.  Our greed as a race of beings is unbelievable and inexcusable.

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  Plans for Easter Sunday:  It’s less than a week away, and I still have only the vaguest of ideas about what we will be doing.  We will be home with just our immediate family, as far as I know.  We will go to church and I’ll sing in the choir, as usual.  I will probably have to cook something…I did see a very interesting looking way to prepare ham while perusing the food channel on Saturday morning.  It involved coating the ham with a crust of dijon mustard, brown sugar and crushed ginger-snap cookie crumbs.  I may have to investigate that one.  The kids will want some sort of Easter egg hunt…sometimes we do this as a neighborhood project, sometimes not.  Usually if it’s going to be done as a neighborhood thing, I have to get the ball rolling, and I’m not sure I feel like dong that this year.  Sometimes we just do it with one or two other families, that doesn’t involve as much planning.  Sometimes it’s just for our own kids, although Kyle and Nathan are probably a little too old (at ages 19 and 17, respectively) to get into the hunting part.  They still like to color eggs, though (I think…either that or they just want to humor me, sentimental fool that I am J.) 

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  Time for Xanga:  I probably won’t have much this week.  With the kids home, they will want their own share of computer time, not to mention a share of my attention.  So don’t worry about me if I don’t post or comment as often this week.  I’m just spending time with the kiddos! 

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  Happy Spring, everyone!  I am so thankful for the increasing daylight hours, the sunlight that melts the snow and warms the earth.  Pretty soon I should see some new life poking up through the ground…crocuses first, sometimes before all of the snow is gone.  I want the ground to thaw so I can set out my spring bulbs…the dahlias and calla lilies and acidantheras and anemones and fairy lilies.  

              

  I love flowers.

   

   

  That’s about it from my random little corner of the world.

                                                                                        ~Leah ~     

              

  • 12:00 pm
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